1. Field
The present invention relates to a light emitting element, and more particularly, to a heat radiation structure of a light emitting element, which has leads, each lead having a plurality of leg sections, and a light emitting chip mounted on any one of the leads.
2. Discussion
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a light emitting element according to a prior art.
As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional light emitting element includes first and second leads 10 and 20; a light emitting chip 30 mounted on the first lead 10; a wire 40 connecting the light emitting chip 30 and the second lead 20; and a molding portion 50 encapsulating portions of the first and second leads 10 and 20 and the light emitting chip 30. At this time, each of the first and second leads 10 and 20 has two leg sections, which are connected to each other through a connecting section 10a at top portions of the leg sections. Particularly, the first lead 10 further includes a chip seating section 10b formed to extend from the connecting section toward a connecting section of the second lead 20, and the light emitting chip 30 is mounted on the chip seating section 10b. 
In the aforementioned structure of the light emitting element according to the prior art, electric energy moves from the connecting section, as an electrical connecting section, to the chip seating section. Further, heat generated from the light emitting chip 20 also moves through the same path. However, since an existing lead is designed such that the connecting section 10a is narrower than the chip seating section 10b in order to reduce a material as shown in FIG. 1, a thermal load is concentrated therebetween, which results in a problem such as exfoliation. Moreover, since the area of a path through which heat flows is small, a relatively large amount of heat is not radiated. Therefore, there is a problem in a heat radiation effect.
Further, since the conventional light emitting element having the aforementioned configuration includes the leads, which protrude to the outside of the molding portion 50 only to receive external input without any additional structure, a surface area for heat radiation is limited. Accordingly, since convection naturally occurring due to a temperature difference is limited and thus heat radiation through the convection does not occur, so there is a problem in that the temperature of the entire light emitting element rises, and it is difficult to provide a high-efficiency light emitting element since the heat in the interior of the light emitting element is not rapidly radiated to the outside and thus a temperature difference between the interior and exterior of the light emitting element is large.